3 Tips Navy SEALs Offer That Every Entrepreneur Can Use…

TheU.S. Navy SEALs are the world’s most elite force, carrying out specialized and intensely challenging warfare that is beyond the means of, well, everyone else. From direct combat to special reconnaissance and counterterrorism, SEALs prepare for their roles with the most physically and mentally grueling training the military has to offer — and that includes the mental component as well as the physical one.

“I’ve learned that while these guys are some of the most physically fit specimens on the planet, their mental fortitude might be their single greatest asset,” Andrew Ferebee, host of Knowledge for Men, told me. When Ferebee recently picked the brains of four SEALs on his podcast, it drew more than four million downloads. “SEALs literally will themselves to success,” Ferebee said.

Entrepreneurs, take note! While most of us will never walk a path as treacherous as that of a SEAL, adopting some of these “supermen” tips and mantras may help you tackle even the most difficult business challenges you’re bound to face.

Here are three pieces of SEAL-tested advice that entrepreneurs would be wise to heed.

1. “Keep your cool, even when those around you can’t.”

If this name sounds familiar, it’s because McRaven organized the execution ofOperation Neptune Spear, the special ops raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Over a nearly 40-year military career, McRaven served as commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

He also cautioned against getting ahead of yourself, saying: “If you start focusing on the next job, then you’re probably not going to do the one you have very well.”

The business application: For Stephen Culp, co-founder of tech startupPriceWaiter, keeping your cool is highly applicable advice for an entrepreneur. “We have a practice of saying, ‘Give me your third reaction to what I’m about to say,’ because your best judgment comes after you’ve taken a breath or two,” Culp told me.

2. “You have to get your butt kicked . . . and fail.”

For Courtley, a former sniper and author ofSEAL Survival Guide: A Navy SEAL’s Secrets to Surviving Any Disaster, consistently challenging yourself to the point of failure is not optional; it’s a motto he lives by. On the podcast, Courtley recalled a personal experience during SEAL training, where a top-ranked triathlete cruised through most exercises but failed to succeed.

“He would finish 2-mile swims when the rest of us were only halfway done. He would do these runs breathing through his nose. It was a joke for him,” says Courtley. “But this guy got into Hell Week and quit on day two because he had never been challenged his whole life.”

For entrepreneurs, challenging yourself is a crucial part of the process. Otherwise, you might buckle at the first sign of pressure.